History Of Puerto Rico In The 1800's

Puerto Rico in the 1800’s was a colony under the Spanish rule that was collapsing downhill. Located under the United States near Cuba, Puerto Rico was the ideal country for the Spanish to export products. Spain promoted Puerto Rico to be an “all-export” country which is what their economy was only thriving on. Other countries like the United States and various other countries in Europe did not like how Spain was treating its colonies. As the 1800’s became a turning point in the history, many countries in Latin America had gained their independence from the two “mother” countries; Spain and Portugal.
Puerto Rico has always been a colony to major imperialistic countries. After the discovery of Puerto Rico in 1493 by Christopher Columbus it has always been under the control of Spain. Spain thought of it as a country that had great agricultural resources for sugar cane, tobacco, coffee and cattle. Most of the money that Puerto Rico was not going to help them as a country …show more content…
Still recovering from the Spanish-American War the United States needed lots of soldiers to fight in this war. Americans thought that they could possibly call onto the closest colony of the United States; Puerto Rico. The United States government came up with the Jones Act of 1917 (also named the Jones-Shafroth Act,) which granted Puerto Rican citizens a United States citizenship and freedom in the Puerto Rican government. It had government branches like the U.S. and created a bicameral legislature (two houses.) Most Puerto Ricans were happy with having a U.S. citizenship. As the United States entered the war, this meant that the Puerto Rican men were eligible to enlist in the military. At first an estimated 2,000 Puerto Rican men were drafted into the war but after around 18,000 men volunteered to enlist in the military. Many of these men fought on the Western Front or guarded the Panama